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Impact of Ethnic Identity and Ethnic Relevance of Health Information on Asian Americans' Preferences for E‐Health Agents
Author(s) -
Gong Li,
Cheng Karen G.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/j.1559-1816.2010.00672.x
Subject(s) - ethnic group , relevance (law) , psychology , social psychology , preference , credibility , identity (music) , matching (statistics) , political science , medicine , acoustics , law , economics , microeconomics , physics , pathology
Ethnic identity tends to predict same‐ethnicity preference. However, very little research has tested the impact of ethnic identity across messages that bear distinct relevance with different groups. In Experiment 1, Asian American participants read 4 pieces of disease‐related information presented by 2 Asian and 2 White agents on a computer. Both strong and weak ethnic identifiers gave higher credibility ratings of the agents when the agents' ethnicity matched with ethnic relevance of the information. Experiment 2 assessed ethnicity preference by allowing participants to choose agents for 4 healthy‐food Websites and also found the agent–information matching pattern. Ethnic identity did not have an effect. The findings are discussed within a framework that contrasts a social‐identity orientation and an external‐content orientation.